MicroStart Increases Access to Financial Services for Working Poor in Egypt

MicroStart, a global initiative funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), is designed to help improve the access of the working poor to appropriate financial services offered by local organizations, in order to enhance their economic activities, increase their revenues and create employment. In Egypt, the informal sector, which provides a substantial share of employment for the poor, accounts for as much as 50 percent of the country’s total economic activity. Moreover, poverty in Egypt is significantly more prevalent among female-headed households.

ACDI/VOCA implements the MicroStart-Egypt project, which aims to strengthen the capacity of microfinance institutions to provide loans to the poor, including women and other disadvantaged individuals. In Fayoum, one of the poorest provinces in Egypt, MicroStart identified three microfinance institutions. Since one of the main goals of the project is to enhance the availability of credit to the economically active poor, ACDI/VOCA provided intensive technical assistance to the three institutions, enabling them to develop effective management systems, hire and train professional staff and appraise and finance many more microeconomic activities.